Presently, the fishing industry has many unintentional, harmful effects on marine life. For instance, endangered right whales are regularly entangled and killed by encounters with fixed gear. Fixed gear is fishing gear that is left at sea for a period of time, normally attached to buoys. Another marine creature routinely harmed, and often killed by fixed gear, is the sea turtle. Sea turtles will run into fixed gear, become entangled, and either suffer serious abrasions from fishing rope or fatal injuries.
To protect whales, fixed gear is often equipped with “weak links” attaching fishing rope to buoys. The concept behind the weak link is that if whales become entangled in the fixed gear, the weak links will break and the released rope will no longer entangle the whales. However, weak links are not a practical solution for sea turtles. The fixed gear puts more tension on the weak links than a sea turtle can manage. Sea turtles can weigh anywhere from 80 pounds to 1400 pounds and can attain a shell length of 30 to 75 inches, but fixed gear can weigh as much as 4000 pounds. Designing a weak link that will break for sea turtles without snapping from the weight of fishing gear is difficult, if not impossible. New technology is needed that can protect marine life, such as sea turtles, from fishing gear, including fixed gear.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.